Jean Ybarnegaray

Jean Ybarnegaray (16 October 1883-25 April 1956) was a minister in the Vichy France regime during World War II.

Biography
Jean Ybarnegaray was born in Uhart-Cize, Basque Country, France in 1883, and he practiced law before being elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1914. He served in the French Army during World War I, and, after he was wounded, he returned to the Chamber of Deputies in 1917 and criticized the Nivelle Offensive, the 1918 Armistice of Compiegne, and the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. Previously a member of the Republican Federation, he joined the French Social Party in 1938, and he was hostile towards the refugees of the Spanish Civil War, calling them "reds" and disavowing Basque nationalism. During World War II, he served as Minister of State and Minister for Veterans in the Family in Philippe Petain's Vichy France regime, but he was arrested in 1943 for assisting escapees in crossing the Pyrenees. His covert French Resistance activities led to his civil rights being restored after the war's end, and he died in 1956.